Undergrad and graduate experience

RacinReaver
Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:25:11 +0000

As a grad student you’re expected to work 40+ hour weeks (some labs the expectations start considerably higher). Your first year or two you’re loaded down with full schedules roughly equivalent to your weeder years in undergrad, and there’s really not as much time to do as many activities as you did in undergrad. By the time you finish with classes you’re going to be working on your research, and that should really take up a huge chunk of your time. If you TA, there goes at least a day a week you’d rather be spending on research.

That said, you still have enough time to join a club or two, but I know now that I’ve been in grad school a few years I have significantly less free time than I did as an undergrad. I help run an IM softball team in the summer, and I try to take one “fun” class a semester, but generally my only free time in on weekends.

A lot of people also tend to be in more committed relationships in grad school, often times people get married or have kids before they finish. Having a stable relationship can certainly suck you away from other things you’d do on your own since you need to be sure there’s time to spend with your partner.